PUTRAJAYA: Democratic Action Party (DAP) Member of Parliament for Kota Kinabalu Chan Foong Hin has described the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) Technical Committee first meeting as “fruitful.”

He said the committee had been given a strict timeline to deliver and the committee members were keen to go to the core of the matters straight away, mainly the implementation of the Malaysia Agreement.

In a statement here Monday, Chan was pleased that the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) Technical Committee finally held its first meeting today at the Legal Affairs Division here.

“There are three levels: Steering Committee, Technical Committee, and Working Committee. The Steering Committee which is chaired by the Prime Minister himself held its first meeting on the Dec 17 last year.

“Today the Technical Committee finally met and managed to agree in general the timeline and agenda, which includes the appointment of members for each of the Working Committee,” he said.

During his debate on the mid-term review of the 11th Malaysia Plan in the last Parliament sitting Chan had urged the Federal government to call for the Malaysia Agreement Review Committees meeting as soon as possible so that there will be no further delay in the implementation of the Malaysia Agreement.

Chan, who is amongst the first batch of sixteen committee members appointed into the said Technical Committee, stated that he was honoured to be appointed together with other state law makers and experts on the matter.

“It is not an easy task but I am confident that with my experience as a lawmaker in both the Sabah state assembly and now in the federal parliament, I can contribute Sabahan Federalist’s voice into the discussion and to reach a solution that will bring the most benefit to all Sabahans.”

“All three committees are given six months to prepare a comprehensive report to the cabinet containing proposals and suggestions leading to the amendment of the Federal Constitution, including but not limited to Article 1(2).

The Technical Committee itself will be meeting at least once a month and from there we will be able to monitor closely the progress of the work done by the Working Committee and ensure that things are moving along,” Chan who is also secretary of DAP Sabah.-SabahNewsToday